Bite club: Homestyle Filipino foods

• "It's a family run business with food that's like what mom used to make," Pablos tells Axios. "They're best known for crispy pata, a deep fried pork knuckle. But honestly it's the best steam table you'll find in the tri-state area."

👋 Monica here. I stopped by on a rainy Sunday morning to find a line of folks picking up their tapsilog breakfasts, with cured meat, fried rice and egg.

• The crispy pata wasn't ready yet so I got scoops of kare kare, a peanut butter enriched stew of vegetables, and beef tripe as well as the pinkabet, a vegetable stew with okra, eggplant, sweet potatoes and, my favorite, bitter melon.
• For dessert I got sapin sapin (sah-PEEN) layers of coconut-infused glutinous rice cake.
• Next time I hope to get that crispy pata. But these stews and dessert brought soul satisfying Filipino sunshine to a gloomy Chicago day.

Go deeper: Pablo offers guidance on shopping for Filipino food at the massive Seafood City grocery store.